'Game of Thrones' Season 7 Premiere Pirated 92 Million Times

Period fantasy “Game of Thrones” is a global blockbuster delivering record ratings and robust retail sales for HBO and HBO Home Entertainment. Online pirates, millions of them, also covet the show.

The July 16 airing of the first episode of season seven was pirated 91.74 million times according to online monitoring service MUSO. With 77.91 million illegal streams and downloads, streaming was the most popular way to access the show. File-sharing networks generated 8.36 million user-actions, while downloading tracked 4.95 million actions.

CEO Andy Chatterley said data exceeded projections and raised more than a few eyebrows.

“What we’re seeing here isn’t just P2P torrent downloads, but unauthorized streams and every type of piracy. This is the total audience picture, which often goes unreported,” Chatterley said in a statement.

While ‘Thrones” remains a ratings hit, nearly 100 million people are watching it outside of official channels. The United States, United Kingdom and Germany top the chart for most “Thrones” piracy. Domestic illegal downloads/streams topped 15 million, with 6.25 million downloads/streams in the U.K. at 6.25 million.

“This is a massive audience lost from legal channels on release,” Chatterley said, adding that for anyone measuring an audience, it’s always worth bearing in mind that there may be a whole fan base out there that’s just being ignored.”

Meanwhile, Game of Thrones: The Complete Sixth Season has $5.8 million in combined DVD/Blu-ray Disc sales this year, according to The-Numbers.com. That pales to Game of Thrones: The Complete Fifth Season, which generated $20.5 million in disc sales last year.

Indeed, MUSO contends pirating “Thrones” will likely increase as the season continues.